Don't worry, Reddit's CEO says porn is here to stay on the site

Reddit’s not looking to remove porn from the website at any point in the near future, CEO Steve Huffman said in an Axios interview that aired this weekend. Huffman explained to the interviewer that he believes sex is a topic often underserved, both online and offline, and he hopes Reddit can be a home for that content.

He clarified also that Reddit does not allow exploitative pornographic content. “I think there’s another aspect that’s empowering, and these are people sharing stories of themselves, pictures of themselves, and we are perfectly supportive of that,” he said in the interview.

Huffman’s comments further separate Reddit’s porn policies from those of other popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. Most internet companies have taken the opposite stance in the last few years, tightening anti-nudity policies and generally punishing users who seek to post pornographic content.

With so much of the internet becoming less friendly to sex by the day, Reddit’s stance is truly a breath of fresh air — as long as the site can keep up with its promises of moderation, that is.

Unfriendly to sex — Social media, and really the internet writ large, has never quite figured out how to handle sex. In the last few years, companies and those in power have vastly decided that the best course of action is to segregate sexual content from the rest of the internet. Tumblr’s decision in late 2018 to ban all images and videos of sex — as well as of “female-presenting” nipples — was a landmark case for the internet’s treatment of sexual content. A huge amount of the network’s content had been pornographic in nature. Facebook and Instagram have enacted similar bans since.

Sex workers have been hit hardest by the internet’s general unfriendliness to pornographic content. Lawmakers have been working overtime to make it exceedingly difficult for sex workers to upload content to the internet, even on sites dedicated to pornography.

Moderation is key here — Those pushing for increased regulation of sexual content on the internet have many reasons for doing so, often aligned with deep-seated politics. The main talking point as of late is actually a very valid one: the high risk of pornographic content being exploitative.

Reddit’s solution to mitigating this risk is vigorous moderation. This is really the most balanced option, allowing users to still post and view sexual content — but it’s also a very tricky balance to maintain. Moderation of any kind is difficult; the lines are even less defined when examining sexual content. As one of the last social media safe havens for pornographic content, it’s likely that Reddit will continue seeing plenty of porn in the future.